The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

Book Description

The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Timothy Egan's critically acclaimed account rescues this iconic chapter of American history from the shadows in a tour de force of historical reportage. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, Egan does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, "the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect" (New York Times). In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, "The Worst Hard Time" is "arguably the best nonfiction book yet" (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of trifling with nature.

Customer Reviews:

Unbelievable!.......2007-10-03

This book was fantastic. Although the majority of books I read are fiction, I'm not hesitant to read good non-fiction. This book was so well written that it reads like a taut novel. Along with Seabiscuit and The Devil in the White City, it is one of the best historical books I've read. Very well researched and thought out. You almost can't believe that this could have actually happened. You feel like you know the characters, and you certainly root for them even though you seemingly know how it will turn out. I would recommend this book to any avid reader - fiction or non-fiction.

Hopefully, we will learn from our past.......2007-10-02

This is an important event in US history that is so relevant today, supplying more fuel for both side of the ongoing debate on global warming.

I found it a bit difficult to stay connected to the characters. In spite of that, the story remained interesting, showing the plight and hardships endured by the generation before us, and bringing us an awareness of our fragile ecosystem.

Eye Opening and Hard to Put Down.......2007-09-25

A must read for history buffs and readers in general. Information places the midwest, its people, and past in an entirely different light of appreciation. (Absolutely Facinating)!

Fine story, good history, a little light on analysis.......2007-09-18

Egan's *Worst Hard Time* is intriguing and largely well done, if a bit relentless. Granted, he's writing about a phenomenon that dragged on for years, repeatedly raising and dashing ever-slimmer hopes; the people who lived the "Dust Bowl" years were literally worn out, but Egan needed to do something more with the material than recreate that sensation. Toward the last third of the book, in particular, a kind of sameness creeps into the narrative, as if Egan didn't really know what else to say -- which I suspect is connected to my sense that he relied too much on too few sources (including a diary that he overuses) -- and his slightly jerky style gets distracting (he's not a great one for writing transitions). For me, one failing is that Egan never explains, in any specific way, the origin and cause of the "black dusters" and other freakish weather phenomena of the "Dust Bowl" era. He tells us that the dust storms came because the topsoil had been carved off by overfarming (and then aggravated by the abandonment of unsuccessful farms), but a meteorological or ecological explanation - even a nontechnical one - wouldn't have been a bad idea. His description of the CCC efforts at re-grassing the plains left me with significant questions that he doesn't answer: Given that the dust storms continued unabated throughout the effort, what was the government's strategy for protecting the newly planted grass during the time it would have taken for it to mature enough to hold the soil? And how did they water it? In addition, I'd have appreciated a more substantive "bring us up to date" chapter at the end that explained more clearly what happened in the wake of the human and policy failures of the Dust Bowl. Nor would a little class analysis have hurt -- other than wagging a kind of general finger at get-rich schemes perpetrated both by private interests and by the government, he seems careful not to accuse anybody too directly of creating an ecological disaster, of maiming (psychologically and literally) and killing tens of thousands of people, or of engaging in a kind of class warfare that embodied the ferocious social Darwinism of Depression-era capitalism. Finally, I'd just point out that the book isn't really the story of "survivors" of the Dust Bowl; there are essentially no survivors, and this is no movie-of-the-week tale of grit, courage, and heroism that win out in the end. The people Egan follows are bleak and broken, and their desperation is palpable. *Worst Hard Time* begs the question: Is there any redemption? I think Egan knows there was none, but he seems loathe to say it in so many words.

A Good but flawed Bookend.......2007-09-03

Timothy Egan's _The Worst Hard Times: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl_ has been a nice bookend to other books I have read on the Depression. These include Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States, John T. Flynn's The Roosevelt Myth, Jim Powell's FDR's Folly, and Friedman & Schwartz' A Monetary History of the United States. Egan's book provides a human perspective on momentous times.

Although Egan alludes to the state's complicity in the conditions that produced those hard times, and at the end acknowledges the bad long term effects of FDR's intervention, he definitely sets FDR, Hugh Bennett, and farm policy as the heroes of his story.

The state's complicity lies in first running the natives out, then establishing incentives to farm the land rather than use it for grazing. The long term effect has been to establish detrimental farm subsidies. On the one hand, price supports promote overproduction of commodities like cotton, which the government then buys and dumps, depressing world markets and further impoverishing African farmers. On the other hand, convoluted policies such as sugar price supports, ethanol incentives, and ethanol import tariffs are intended to raise corn prices, further impoverishing Mexican peasants. Roosevelt also pursued wide-ranging efforts to dam rivers and pump the Ogallala aquifer dry, environmentally destructive programs that will come to be hung around the neck of "capitalism". It is a sad reflection on people who worship FDR's policies as the salvation of impoverished American farmers while ignoring the ill effect of those policies on the impoverished farmers in the rest of the world and on our own environment.

Egan's book highlights the real stories of real people. In the context of those times, when it seemed reasonable for the state to encourage homesteading and farming prior to the closing of the West, when the prospect of prolonged drought seemed dim prior to 1932, when the invoice for the social cost of their actions was not yet due, what might have happened to those people in the absence of the New Deal? We don't know, but Egan's stories are valuable details of what did happen to them.

Still, one cannot help but think that Egan has absorbed just a little too much of the high school version of those events. The high school version is that the farmers were too dumb to know what they were doing, so FDR hired some smart men who invented and taught contour plowing and the use of trees for windbreaks, and then they paid the farmers to let some fields go fallow. It is an unusually common myth.

The conservation measures discussed had been around long before FDR took office. Contour plowing in particular was practiced by the ancient Phoenicians. In the early 1800s, Thomas Jefferson had promoted it on his own farm. These techniques were not unknown to moderns: Pancho Villa promoted contour plowing.

Egan relies on an article, "Small Farms, Externalities and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s" by Zeynep K. Hansen and Gary D. Libecap, published by the NBER. Among other things, the article discusses erosion as an example of several kinds of externality. Suspension of fine particles was costly to farmers as lost soil, but they also caused health problems to humans and livestock. Saltation and creep are externalities in which the topsoil from one farm is deposited on another farm, not only killing the wheat but also burying the downwind farm's erosion control stubble. In the article, they note that prior to the creation of the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), "The two leading erosion control methods in the 1930s were strip cropping with strip fallow and windbreaks of trees or brush. Both provided barriers to lower surface wind velocity and carrying capacity, but the former was more prevalent because trees could not be grown in many parts of the plains. Strip fallow also had the advantage of building up soil moisture and roughness, which reduced erodibility, whereas tree windbreaks actually absorbed moisture from surrounding ground." This is interesting because it shows that (1) Dust Bowl farmers did practice conservation before FDR saved them, and (2) one of the fables from the high school version, FDR's commitment to using trees to block the wind, was not only a failure, but probably caused more damage. To his credit, even Egan describes the tree idea as a failure.

Further in the article, Hansen and Libecap explain, "To completely combat regional erosion, all of the cultivated acreage in a topographical area of similarly erodible soil would have to be included in a "wind erosion unit" of 50,000 to 500,000 acres or more. The optimal farm sizes for addressing wind erosion and production, however, were not the same. Most estimates by agricultural economists and extension agents in the 1930s of appropriate production sizes for the region suggested two sections of land, 1,280 acres, depending on location in the plains. Few scale economies could be realized beyond that size. Nevertheless, in the 1930s, most farms were smaller than the prescribed levels for optimal production. The Great Plains was covered by hundreds of thousands of small farms. This condition was largely a legacy of the Homestead Act that limited claims to 160 to 320 acres when the region was settled between 1880 and 1925." This is the same opinion reported by Egan of Hugh Bennett, the first director of the SCS. The area covered by Egan's story was formerly the domain of Plains Indians who thrived on grass-fed buffalo. The first whites to successfully live on the land ran the XIT cattle ranch. It was government policy to replace both with small claims farmers, and that -- aside from running off the natives -- is the key cause of the Dust Bowl. According to Bennett's report (quoted from Egan), "'Mistaken public choices have been largely responsible for the situation,' the report proclaimed. Specifically, 'a mistaken homesteading policy, the stimulation of war time demands [World War I] which led to over cropping and over grazing, and encouragement of a system of agriculture which could not be both permanent and prosperous ... The Federal homestead policy, which kept land allotments low and required that a portion of each should be plowed, is now seen to have caused immeasurable harm. The Homestead Act of 1862, limiting an individual to 160 acres, was on the western plains almost an obligatory act of poverty.'"

Egan repeatedly suggests that farmers were ready to try anything, and holds up the federal program as their savior, but fails to note that early federal programs were failures. It wasn't until the initiative fell to the states that the programs succeeded. Hansen and Libecap explain, "Given the mixed incentives to participate in erosion control, the response to calls for voluntary collective action was limited. Indeed, the SCS noted a lack of voluntary farmer participation in the erosion control programs outlined in the demonstration projects. ... More direct and coercive government intervention came in 1937 with inauguration of Soil Conservation Districts (SCDs) that had the authority to force farmer compliance and the resources (subsidies) to cover the costs of erosion control. The SCDs were local government units and required state legislation for establishment." According to Hansen and Libecap, "Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, at the center of the Dust Bowl, enacted wind erosion laws in 1935", but Egan fails to note those, favoring the pro-FDR narrative.

Federal policies created the conditions for this environmental and social disaster. That is not a theoretical, paper claim: even Hugh Bennett agreed that the federal Homestead policy was a mistake. The federal SCS was a failure while the state-led SCDs succeeded. The Nature Conservancy and not the federal government pioneered the use of prescribed fire to maintain the health of the grasslands. Grass-fed buffalo are being reintroduced to the grass-fire-buffalo ecosystem as a sustainable food source. It turns out that laissez-faire would have been the best policy and that federal programs have only made things worse. I wish Timothy Egan had paid more attention to that part of the narrative.

Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders

Average customer rating:

Nothing new here.
A fascinating read flawed by an incomplete analysis of root causes and possible solutions
Informative
Interesting but...
Eye opening

Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders
James D. Scurlock
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Maxed Out
Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America's Addiction to Credit
In Debt We Trust
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ASIN: 141653251X

Book Description

Foreclosures are hitting record highs; Americans are declaring bankruptcy at rates ten times that during the great Depression; more college students drop out because of debts than due to poor grades; reports of debtor suicides proliferate in the media. In other words, it's a great time to be in the banking business.

Maxed Out takes us on a road trip that is sometimes hysterical and often horrifying: from Las Vegas to the Bible Belt, from the backwoods to inner cities, where the world's largest financial giants troll for their next victims. Welcome to a country populated by debt pirates, corporate predators, human credit card billboards, debt evangelists, megamillion-dollar spec homes, and, of course, trillions of dollars of easy credit.

Combining startling facts with even more startling examinations of individuals, institutions, the government, and modern religion, James Scurlock separates the myths (there is "good debt" and "bad debt") from the harsh reality (corporations partner with colleges to target today's youth; credit reports are riddled with errors that will never be fixed; and death, for many of those in trouble, is the only way out).

At a time when the financial industry posts ever-higher profits even as its clients drown in the flood of easy credit, Scurlock exposes very real, potentially disastrous systems and policies that are consuming millions of Americans. Maxed Out takes readers on a wickedly smart and entertaining tour of what one interviewee calls "the last taboo."

Customer Reviews:

Nothing new here........2007-10-06

Yes, the financial industry is ripping people off, sometimes getting away with behavior that is even criminal (the book has a story of a mentally challenged mother and son who are losing their house to CitiFinancial). Yes, people are living irresponsibly and are goaded into it by modern society. The book, however, while presenting a list of complaints and anecdotal stories, meanders and never makes a coherent case beyond the two listed above and says really nothing about what can be done. Scurlock forecasts doom for us, but has no idea how to forestall it.

The advice of one reviewer to "just not pay" is not valid. Your credit score is now used in a number of ways that have nothing to do with needing credit -- including judging fitness for employment and determining cost of insurance, including auto insurance. Modern society today, unfortunately, can penalize you for NOT using credit (and therefore having an unacceptable available credit to debt ratio), as well as punish you for using credit irresponsibly.

A fascinating read flawed by an incomplete analysis of root causes and possible solutions.......2007-09-15

I learned about "Maxed Out" as a regular listener of Dave Ramsey (the famous talk radio anti-debt crusader hailing from Nashville, TN). Scurlock asked Ramsey to participate in both his movie and book. I have a tremendous interest in financial psychology so I was very curious if Scurlock could pinpoint the root causes of the current debt crisis while accurately assessing the efforts of consumer advocates like Dave Ramsey.

The author touches on a number of topics related to the world of predatory lending. He includes an entertaining history of BankAmericard (now Visa), MasterCharge (now MasterCard), CitiBank/CitiFinancial, and several other companies. He presents numerous heartbreaking stories of individuals who, by their own admissions, failed to plan for disaster and made poor financial choices that resulted in devastating outcomes (including jail terms and suicides). He provides an inside look at the sleazy world of collection agencies. He also shares the opinions of academics and provides occasional quotes from our esteemed politicians in Washington (who naturally reveal themselves as power-hungry, financially clueless morons). Scurlock also makes a few suggestions to address the crisis.

Scurlock has a reporter's instinct. He is very observant and articulates his findings in a lively way. In my opinion, he demonstrates more maturity, more humility, and less emotion when discussing this topic when compared to many other authors (Tamara Draut, Anya Kamenetz, and Barbara Ehrenreich come to mind). Occasionally, he injects his quirky humor, adding to the entertainment value.

Scurlock rails against the "obscene profits" made by banks when pushing "debt products." He makes it sound like that's all banks do. Banks have always pushed debt products for profit. This isn't exactly a revelation. But Scurlock failed to mention that banks also provide essential services such as check cashing/clearing and ready access to our cash via numerous ATMs, for example. These taken-for-granted services are very important benefits to customers (and expensive to administer). Banks help facilitate our day-to-day financial lives. I'm sure my own bank is interested in extracting more profit from me, but my personal banker has never tackled me, put a gun to my head, and demanded I sign loan papers at some usurious interest rate. Banks sell "debt products" for the very simple reason that we demand them!

The issue of personal responsibility is mentioned by the author numerous times but it is not fully explored. In his many anecdotal accounts, dysfunctional behavior resulted in outcomes that were preventable. Even when job losses and health issues were blamed for causing bankruptcies, I noticed that victims spent large sums of money on unnecessary material goods for years, but failed to set aside even a small emergency fund. Their woes were not due to a lack of intelligence, income, or even a debilitating health problem but rather a stubborn denial of reality coupled with poor planning.

For whatever reason, some people choose to live on the edge, using credit cards as a substitute for a cash emergency fund. There's no cushion to mitigate a negative life event--no margin for error. Every spare dollar is consumed, and then some. An emergency fund is certainly not a panacea, but it is a proven way to reduce risk. The subject of risk is something Scurlock only skirts around but does not address directly. The reason Dave Ramsey's message rings true with many listeners is that debt is seen for what it is: risk. If you have debt, you have risk (yes, even if it's mortgage debt). If you don't have debt, your risk is dramatically reduced. Less risk results in more choices and more freedom. It's not a difficult concept to understand.

Scurlock gets bogged down with the negative aspects of financial ruin, but he unfortunately does not provide a complete picture of consumer behavior. For example, a large percentage of Americans religiously pay off their credit cards monthly, routinely rip up new credit card offers, and actively avoid unnecessary fees. Why do these Americans act so differently compared to those that "take the bait" on the road to financial ruin? I know many ordinary people who live below their means, have an emergency fund, buy adequate insurance, drive older cars, have significant home equity, and invest in their retirement plans. They do actually exist, and at almost every economic level. They're all around us, and their numbers are growing every day. To my amazement, the author never investigates the traits of such people (though authors Thomas Stanley and William Danko do in their book "The Millionaire Next Door"). The reason this is important is that these are the habits proven to lead to financial success. Even while admitting that bad behavior can sink some people, Scurlock never investigates how the transformation of financial habits can resolve the current crisis and prevent a reoccurrence.

The phrase "something isn't quite right" appears repeatedly in the book, as if to imply the current debt crisis came out of nowhere. It didn't. In the past decade, I've noticed a distinct shift in financial behavior from defensive to reckless. I have seen lower income families live like the middle class through easy credit. I have seen acquaintances willingly secure huge mortgage loans for homes that they knew they couldn't possibly service. I have watched in horror as intelligent friends went bankrupt after repeatedly making poor life and financial choices, destroying their personal relationships and the psyches of their children. I have seen unprepared borrowers victimized by overzealous mortgage bankers who they viewed as their "best buddies." I have seen a mother bail out her unemployed 19-year old son, who obtained a credit card to buy "cool stuff" and then defaulted. After all, she didn't want him to suffer a hit to his "precious" FICO score. After the debt was settled, he started running up charges again. Yes, indeed, something isn't quite right.

So who is to blame for all this carnage? Well, everyone as it turns out. First of all, financial education is nearly non-existent in our public schools, so our children are clueless about money management (but at least they can learn a vital life skill like the French language!). Secondly, many parents refuse to educate themselves about finance, so they are incapable of passing along important lessons to their children. Parents are also notorious for enabling the poor behavior of their children and often turning their children into helpless adults. Then we have the financial services industry, which provides easy credit to every borrower possible (and sometimes their pets), lending standards be damned. Finally, federal and state governments punish the middle class with hidden fees and stealth taxes (e.g. the Alternative Minimum Tax), which further erode a household's ability to save and invest.

Borrowers, of course, shoulder most of the blame because they drive the demand for credit. Despite the enormous amount of financial information available to them from multiple sources--many free--borrowers live in a perpetual state of denial, refusing to educate themselves. They don't take defensive measures to protect themselves (i.e., living below their means, establishing emergency savings, securing healthcare, auto, home, and life insurance, etc.). They refuse to create and follow even a simple budget. They refuse to control their spending. They create the circumstances of their own financial ruin. Scurlock certainly describes these behaviors along with the self-flagellation on the part of the "victims," but leaves it at that. He acknowledges that bad behavior often results in disaster, but then proposes solutions that do not address the behavior itself.

This brings me around to Dave Ramsey again. He is a hero to a large number of people who are determined to resolve their problems and achieve total debt-freedom (including the mortgage). He teaches self-control, personal responsibility, risk management, and an easy-to-implement plan to reach financial independence. He teaches his audience not to ask "how can I borrow my way out of this?" but instead "how can I solve my problems without credit?" He makes an exception for mortgage loans, but even then he teaches his listeners to secure a reasonable loan with conventional terms. He prefers his listeners confront their problems, shed feelings of victimization, and turn the tables on the financial services industry. It's a message that plays very well. I felt Scurlock did not adequately acknowledge the importance of this vital movement in the book.

Although it's clear some fraudulent subprime lending occurred in the past few years, nearly all cases were fully disclosed, legal transactions. Even though Scurlock would like government to step in and clean up the industry, he apparently forgot that government helped create this mess in the first place by actively encouraging banks to loosen standards to lend money to borrowers considered very risky by historical standards. The results were predictable. Some borrowers knowingly took the proverbial rope handed to them and promptly hanged themselves. So, basically, the government created the problem and now many are asking the government to fix it.

What happened to people learning to control their own lives and financial futures without government intervention? We can demand punitive regulation of the financial services industry all day long, but this will not solve the problem (incidentally, banking is among the most regulated of all industries which Scurlock mentions, to his credit). The true root cause of the crisis is bad behavior on the part of consumers. The government cannot legislate good behavior. That is our responsibility. It's time Americans openly admit that we are more the victims of our own lofty sense of entitlement and ignorance rather than the tactics of the financial services industry. It is worth noting that first-generation millionaires never count on the government to dictate their destinies (as documented in "The Millionaire Next Door"). The author missed a golden opportunity to balance his research with this well-established information.

Despite the deficiencies I noted above, this is a book worth reading. Scurlock's style and investigative abilities are unique and much can be learned from reading his analysis. I feel that some reviewers are unfair to Scurlock, accusing him of being overly political. I don't feel this is the case at all. While I resist government intervention to solve problems that we can easily resolve ourselves, the root causes and results of our financial decisions are complex and must be fully explored and understood. "Maxed Out" provides an excellent starting point for such a discussion.

Informative.......2007-09-08

Having seen the dvd, this is one of the few times that I actually liked a dvd more than the book. Both were informative (the book actually goes into more depth of the subject of finance companies, payday loans, predatory lending, pawnshops, and credit cards), but I found it dryer and not as interesting. It's hard to feel as involved without a face being attached to the subject. Scurlock does write with wit on a subject that might otherwise be boring. There is some very important information regarding this subject that anyone applying for credit needs to know.

Interesting but..........2007-07-09

Like Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock, James Scurlock is a consumer advocate with a populist bent and a tendency for hyperbole. I had no doubt reading this book (and watching the more restrained DVD) that Scurlock knows his stuff -- his research is considerable and he has a background in business. The gap between the rich and poor has been well documented elsewhere, so some of his foundational arguments aren't exactly seminal. It does, however, always merit a mention that business has been deregulated in alarming ways, none of them helpful to anyone but profiteers. Anyone wishing to examine the moral health of a country would need to consider unethical business practices as a corrosive effect. It is difficult to see the value of free markets and the "invisible hand" when examing in the "selling money for profit" industry.

Unfortunately, in illustrating his concerns with real people, Scurlock pulls out every trick in the bleeding heart bag. I lost count of the number of people he writes about who had family members commit suicide due to the stress and shame of financial ruin (and by extension, by the unethical practices of the debt industry.) I have a very hard time believing that money stresses are the sole motivator in suicide -- if that were the case, the global population problem would be over during one lean period. The book works when Scurlock focuses on facts; when he resorts to personal stories it starts to seem manipulative. He glosses over the biggest counterargument -- that even the "poor" in these stories are living far better than people did in the 1920s, an era Scurlock fears we are reproducing.

As much as I despise simplistic "personal responsibility" arguments, I'm afraid Scurlock resorts to similar reductionism. A lot of the debt illustrated in this book is frivolous and rooted in materialism. It is sad that people's lives are ruined over debt... but who in their right mind buys a Lexus or Escalade when they're making a median income? That isn't a business problem, it's a common sense problem.

We are facing many financial problems in this country -- one need only look at the military and Katrina relief effort to see two glaring examples. "Maxed Out" is interesting when it focuses on the bigger picture, but the personal financial stories don't gel well with the dire feeling of those larger issues.

Eye opening.......2007-07-08

Very interesting read. You can learn a lot about the practices of lenders and get a quick snapshot of common americans, who are totally baffeled by credit terms, but totally driven by the need of money. Some stories deserved their fate, but some, as the stories described them, are victems of a lending system that preys on the ignorant with legal talk and slight of hand mathematics.

You'll learn lessons that will protect yourself.

Charles Dickens Four Complete Novels (Great Expectations, Hard Times, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities)

Average customer rating:

Great value for the price
Pretentious
If nothing else, it looks good on your bookshelf.
Loved it,
Lousy Binding

Charles Dickens Four Complete Novels (Great Expectations, Hard Times, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities)
Charles Dickens
Manufacturer: Gramercy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

William Shakespeare: The Complete Works, Deluxe Edition
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Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Works, Deluxe Edition
Charlotte & Emily Bronte: The Complete Novels, Deluxe Edition (Literary Classics)

ASIN: 0517053608
Release Date: 1990-10-03

Book Description

Includes the major works by one of the greatest names in literature. Namely, Great Expectations, Hard Times, A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities. This Library of Literary Classics edition is bound in padded leather with luxurious gold-stamping on the front and spine, satin ribbon marker and gilded edges. Other titles in this Library of Literary Classics series include: Charlotte & Emily Bronte: The Complete Novels; Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Works; Mark Twain: Selected Works; Jane Austen: The Complete Novels: Lewis Carroll: The Complete, Fully Illustrated Works; and William Shakespeare: The Complete Works.

Customer Reviews:

Great value for the price.......2007-08-02

Let's face it, there are better editions of Dickens out there. You get what you pay for. This is not a top of the line leather edition. For the price, though, you can't beat it. It is what it is, a reasonably priced leather edition of four of his novels. At five dollars apiece, the price can not be beat.

Pretentious.......2007-06-07

Buying books because they look good on your shelf is pretentious and phony - and this book capitalizes on that. I got this as a gift and was amazed when I read it at the number of typos in it. There is simply no way this collection was proofed by an editor - that or the editing company is one of the worst in the world.

Buy these fantastic books, but not this edition, unless you just want people to think you read Dickens.

If nothing else, it looks good on your bookshelf........2007-03-13

You would do better off buying these books individually from a different publisher.
It sounds impressive, leather bound, gilded edges, but it is very cheaply done. On the plus side, it does have a ribbon book mark so you don't have to buy your own.
But this book was poorly edited, filled with needless typos, and with all four of these books available from numerous other publishers, I would suggest to just buy it from them.

Loved it,.......2006-02-12

I'm a big fan of long drawn out novles. I've always been a fan of Dickens. This book has on eof my favorite stories by his pen: Great Expectations. His style is very personal I found it a lot like Tolkien. His ability to tell a good tale is clear as the reader becomes part of the story. Very nice volume and worth the time and money in my opinion.

Lousy Binding.......2005-12-20

I've read all but "A Christmas Carol" in this edition. I've found several typos. Moreover, the binding is becoming unglued. I estimate by the time I finish "A Christmas Carol" the binding will be totally exposed. I value permanent books (otherwise I would buy paperbacks). I suggest anyone who enjoys Dickens buy a better edition.

Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)

Average customer rating:

Gardening When it Counts
Mostly good - with attitude
best garden guide i've found
Great for first time gardeners
Great hands-on resource

Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)
Steve Solomon
Manufacturer: New Society Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Fruit | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 086571553X

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The decline of cheap oil is inspiring increasing numbers of North Americans to achieve some measure of backyard food self-sufficiency. In hard times, the family can be greatly helped by growing a highly productive food garden, requiring little cash outlay or watering.

Currently popular intensive vegetable gardening methods are largely inappropriate to this new circumstance. Crowded raised beds require high inputs of water, fertility and organic matter, and demand large amounts of human time and effort. But, except for labor, these inputs depend on the price of oil. Prior to the 1970s, North American home food growing used more land with less labor, with wider plant spacing, with less or no irrigation, and all done with sharp hand tools. But these sustainable systems have been largely forgotten. Gardening When It Counts helps readers rediscover traditional low-input gardening methods to produce healthy food.

Designed for readers with no experience and applicable to most areas in the English-speaking world except the tropics and hot deserts, this book shows that any family with access to 3-5,000 sq. ft. of garden land can halve their food costs using a growing system requiring just the odd bucketful of household waste water, perhaps two hundred dollars worth of hand tools, and about the same amount spent on supplies - working an average of two hours a day during the growing season.

Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series

Customer Reviews:

Gardening When it Counts.......2007-09-24

This book is an exciting addition to books on vegetable growing- so much so, that many
others become unnecessary. The author covers in detail everything about the art- from seed buying,
his own complete organic fertilizer recipe, preparing the soil, simple tools, planting and watering etc
His long experience and total integrity and commitment shine through and make it a must for those
wanting to seriously feed themselves.

Mostly good - with attitude.......2007-09-14

This book was highly recommended to me and I bought it hoping to learn some techniques to help in growing food plants and vegetables for our home use. Since the author lives in a very distinct growing area, if I lived in a maritime New Zealand area it would probably be a perfect book. Many of his techniques would only work in his specific climate and for a full time gardener, which I am not. Sigh. The section on growing and storing each individual type of food is excellent if you can adapt it to your own climate. I was not too happy with the preachy, arrogant, "Everyone else is an idiot and only I know how to do it right" attitude which extends the lenght of the book by quite a bit. Overlooking that, there are a few helpful tidbits but there are other books that I think are more helpful.

best garden guide i've found.......2007-08-15

after looking through a lot of gardening books, i can confidently say that this book provides the best basis of knowledge for starting a garden. My garden is in only its first year, but with the info in this book, I'm already making money selling organic produce through two different coops.

Great for first time gardeners.......2007-05-10

I will be starting my first garden this summer and this was the first book on gardening I read. It makes for a great introduction. Solomon goes into detail about how plants grow and what they need from the gardener. He has a good formula for Organic Fertilizer. He has a good list of what tools you need and what to look for when buying them. He has a great section is the back of the book that goes vegetable by vegetable and explains how to grow and harvest them. He also has a great bibliography in the back that points you to a lot of additional reading.[...]

Great hands-on resource.......2007-03-25

I have a whole shelf of vegetable gardening books, but I turn to this one again and again. Solomon gives clear information on tools, making garden beds, mixing up your own fertilizer (this alone is worth the price of the book), selecting seeds, storing them (another great section), and growing individual crops.

I especially appreciate his perspective as an ex-seedsman, as well as his discussion on different types of brassicas (cabbage, kale, broccoli, and the like) and onions. I had no idea what the difference between long-day and short-day onions were until I read this book. While I garden intensively, I find his discussion on the differences between the intensive method (John Jeavons, Square Foot Gardening, and the like), and the row method.

This book is worth reading and rereading.

It's Hard to Make a Difference When You Can't Find Your Keys: The Seven-Step Path to Becoming Truly Organized

Average customer rating:

Truly life changing....if you are ready.
Holistic approach to organization
Wow!!!!
Great...It was like she was talking directly to me.
I thought I was organized until I read this book

It's Hard to Make a Difference When You Can't Find Your Keys: The Seven-Step Path to Becoming Truly Organized
Marilyn Paul
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Personal Transformation | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Success | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Time Management | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

How to Get Organized Without Resorting to Arson: A Step-By-Step Guide to Clearing Your Desk Without Panic or the Use of Open Flame
Making Peace with the Things in Your Life: Why Your Papers, Books, Clothes, and Other Possessions Keep Overwhelming You and What to Do About It
Conquering Chronic Disorganization
Getting Organized: Learning How to Focus, Organize and Prioritize
The Frantic Woman's Guide to Life: A Year's Worth of Hints, Tips, and Tricks

ASIN: 0142196177
Release Date: 2003-12-30

Book Description

Overbooking? Running late? Feeling overwhelmed by clutter and to-dos? Management consultant Dr. Marilyn Paul guides you on a path to personal change that will bring true relief from the pain and stress of disorganization. Unlike other books on getting organized, It's Hard to Make a Difference When You Can't Find Your Keys offers a clear seven-step path to personal development that is comprehensive in nature.

Drawing on her own experience as a chronically disorganized person, Paul adds warmth, insight, humor, and hope to this manual for change and self-discovery. She introduces the notion of becoming “organized enough” to live a far more rewarding life and make the difference that is most important to you.

Customer Reviews:

Truly life changing....if you are ready........2007-09-17

This book will remain on my permanent bookshelf...it is a treasure. Took me 1 month to finish as I completed nearly all of the exercises that are placed throughout the book. Even as I worked through the book I always looked forward to the next chapter...which is rare for me. I would strongly recommend this book if you are looking for guidance to truly learn about yourself and WHY you do those things that you do. If you are looking for a list of quick organizing tips then this is not the book for you.

Holistic approach to organization.......2007-01-04

Drawing on the four areas of development (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual), the author focuses on WHY people are unorganized. The book is not as focused on practical steps to become organized, but does give an excellent overview on the path towards understanding. If you want a more specific, skills-based approach, this isn't the book for you. On the other hand, if you want to learn why you're not organized (in ANY area of your life, not just housework!), then this is a good tool.

Wow!!!!.......2006-07-09

This is the *best* organization book I have ever came across. I litterately felt like I was sitting in a shrinks office (and it was much cheaper too!). I had so many "ah ha!" moments reading this book and I couldn't put it down. This is one that I will keep on my shelf forever!

Great...It was like she was talking directly to me........2006-06-06

The author talked from experience, expresses herself beautifully, provides holistic help, great resources in the appendix. I think it will change my life.

I thought I was organized until I read this book.......2006-01-30

The author knew all of my weaknesses in organizing my life and she had all the answers on how to correct them.This book will save me two hours a day for the rest of my life.You really feel like you accomplished something after you start practicing these techniques.

Hot Fudge Monday: Tasty Ways to Teach Parts of Speech to Students Who Have a Hard Time Swallowing Anything to Do with Grammar

Average customer rating:

Average at best
Good back-up exercises
My students enjoy these activites
The perfect compromise
Money well spent!

Hot Fudge Monday: Tasty Ways to Teach Parts of Speech to Students Who Have a Hard Time Swallowing Anything to Do with Grammar
Randy Larson
Manufacturer: Cottonwood Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Pedagogy | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Grammar | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

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DownWRITE Funny: Using students' love of the ridiculous to teach serious writing skills
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Fun With Grammar: 75 Quick Activities & Games That Help Kids Learn About Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, and More : Grades 4-8
Caught'Ya !: Grammar With a Giggle

ASIN: 187767317X

Book Description

This practical and funny book of reproducible activities uses clear explanations and quirky humor to help students learn about language as they use it.

Customer Reviews:

Average at best.......2007-03-18

This book gives good activities for spare time, but i wouldn't use it for primary instruction. It is basically a lot like all the other so called "fun" grammar exercises you've ever seen.

Good back-up exercises.......2005-11-01

I'm not as enthusiastic about this book as the others who left ratings. It doesn't cover the topics I am focusing on this year. It's a bit advanced for my seventh graders.

My students enjoy these activites.......2004-12-29

I love reading and writing, but teaching grammar to eighth graders is just not much fun! This book is an excellant resource. The students enjoy the silly sentences and prompts given to them. The explanations are easy to follow. By eighth grade this shouldn't be new material for them. I've enjoyed using this book to refresh their memories with some of the basic concepts in grammar.

The perfect compromise.......2003-09-27

If you are a teacher struggling to make grammar interesting and relevant to your students, while also trying to follow an established curriculum (and not work yourself to death in the process) do not hesitate to buy this book! I am a first-year teacher struggling to find a compromise between how I have to teach and how I know I should be teaching--and this book is it! While it appears to be simply a book full of grammar worksheets ('yippie' shouts the administration), it really is a back door to teaching grammar in the context of writing ('woo hoo' exclaims the English teacher). Each exercise is intended to teach concrete grammar rules and skills as well as to apply these new skills to the writing process. It is a collection of the excellent, creative kinds of activities I would come up with myself--if only I had the time!

Money well spent!.......2000-11-05

I am homeschooling my 9 year old son and this book is a great resource to use. It's humor can't help but add joy and eagerness to the learning process. It's just the spark we needed to get his creative juices flowing when it comes to writing! Lessons are short and to the point with examples that clearly show what the lesson is intended to convey. I'll be using this one for awhile!!

Average customer rating:

lovely
humor, pathos, above average!
Keillor's selection of poetry
A comfort to me during my most difficult trial
Another Keillor 'must' read

Good Poems for Hard Times

Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Anthologies | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Good Poems
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ASIN: 0143037676

Book Description

Chosen by Garison Keillor for his readings on public radio's The Writer's Almanac, the 185 poems in this follow-up to his acclaimed anthology Good Poems are perfect for our troubled times. Here, readers will find solace in works that are bracing and courageous, organized into such resonant headings as “Such As It Is More or Less” and “Let It Spill.” From William Shakespeare and Walt Whitman to R. S. Gwynn and Jennifer Michael Hecht, the voices gathered in this collection will be more than welcome to those who've been struck by bad news, who are burdened by stress, or who simply appreciate the power of good poetry.

Customer Reviews:

lovely.......2007-08-20

this makes a great gift, i purchased 6 copies of this book for friends as a going away present. the poems are all-purpose, i think the title is a misnomer... i'd recommend to anyone who likes unpretentious quality poetry

humor, pathos, above average!.......2007-02-18

Garrison Keeler is a master. Great for upper elementary and middle school children to read too.

Keillor's selection of poetry.......2007-01-12

Garrison Keillor has an uncommon ability to select poetry that inspires the mind by creating accessible images that speak to the reader more than the usual turgid poetry. I thoroughly enjoyed his selections even though I do not share his religious leanings (about 5 % have Christian references). The poems he chooses have universal appeal.

A comfort to me during my most difficult trial.......2006-12-26

I stumbled into this book at the library - about 2 weeks after my wife passed away suddenly - I loved the introduction, and the poems really hit home hard, and really were a comfort - and it seemed that nothing anyone could say was very comforting, but the words through literature was comforting. So after reading this at the library I wanted to make sure I owned a copy of this book as this is a book I'll want to read over and over again. I can't say more about what an excellent collection this is, and of course, It think Garrison Keillor is probably one of the most incredible comic geniuses of our modern era -

Another Keillor 'must' read.......2006-11-20

Nothing that Garrison Keillor writes should be ignored. A good percentage of what he writes, reads just as he sounds on his unique show 'A Prairie Home Companion', which is to say, great. Another reviewer has noted the quality and importance of his Introduction. Ditto ! Me too. This book will not make you feel good. It will make you feel better, if you are down and out and want to know that you are not crazy, that there is a lot of bad stuff out there, people are in the same boat, it's a big boat, and there are life preservers. Some of these poems are life preservers. Some others may make you want to go overboard. Avoid this urge. Not healthy. "These poems describe a common life. It is good to know about this. I hope you take courage from it." Well done, Mr keillor, well said.

Even God Is Single, So Stop Giving Me A Hard Time

Average customer rating:

Disappointing
Great Pick Me Up
Let Me Be ...
Short and Sweet
A silly,unamusing book

Even God Is Single, So Stop Giving Me A Hard Time
Karen Salmansohn
Manufacturer: Workman Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Self-Help & Psychology | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books

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Being Single in a Couple's World: How to Be Happily Single While Looking for Love

ASIN: 076112134X

Book Description

It's the edgy gift book for every unmarried woman who's fending off her nudgy mother and overly concerned (over-bearing?) friend, who can't go to a holiday dinner, class reunion, shower or wedding without hearing the usual round of questions. Something like So, why aren't you married yet? Or sometimes, Still not found that special someone? Or any variation thereof.

Delightful, irreverent, and witty, Even God is Single, So Stop Giving Me a Hard Time is an affirmation for every girl who's single and loving it. Even God is Single is strong, sexy, smart, and edgy. And joyous-it celebrates singlehood, just as it pays homage to the self-assured and savvy woman who knows that you're not half a person just because you're not half a couple.

Even God is Single asks is it "monogamy" or "monotony?" Shows that given the 50% divorce rate, you haven't missed out on marriage, you just skipped a few divorces. And fearlessly examines the role models. Married? Frankenstein, Linda Tripp, and 20,000 Moonies. Single? Catwoman, Superwoman--and, of course, God.

Customer Reviews:

Disappointing.......2007-05-09

This is not so much a book as a hard bound pamphlet. No substance to speak of and zero depth. Disappointing in that yet another book takes a flippant approach to singleness and Christianity.

Great Pick Me Up.......2005-11-04

Even God is Single is a wonderfully irreverent look at all the reasons why being single is not the end of the world and may even be a plus. Not only is it well written but the illustrations are fabulous. Never let anyone dare question your single status again. Buy the book if you or a friend needs a good laugh.

Let Me Be ..........2003-01-26

Let me be single. I do not want to get married. Thank you for this fun and interesting book.

Short and Sweet.......2003-01-17

This one is shorter than most of Karen Salmansohn's books, but it certainly is sweet. Marriage is not the be-all and end-all of life in the 21st Century !! Of course, if you do want to change your status, check out her new book for 2003 -- "How To Change Your Entire Life By Doing Absolutely Nothing" -- which I also enjoyed very much. Perceptive humor can be good for you.

A silly,unamusing book.......2002-04-24

I dont understand why any man would want to do the illustrations for Karen Salmansohns books.I personally am so repulsed by this woman I would want nothing to do with any of her projects.This book isnt any better than her other books,theyre all worthy of only one star reviews.

Fearful Hard Times: The Siege and Relief of Eshowe 1879

Average customer rating:

Fearful Hard Times: The Siege and Relief of Eshowe 1879
Ian Castle , and Ian Knight
Manufacturer: Greenhill Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1853671800

Beyond the Barriers: Overcoming Hard Times Through Tough Faith (Focus on the Family)

Average customer rating:

Beyond The Barriers
What all kids need to know
A must for those seeking spiritual challenge
Beyond the Barriers

Beyond the Barriers: Overcoming Hard Times Through Tough Faith (Focus on the Family)
Harold Morris
Manufacturer: W Pub Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Religious | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0849999936

Book Description

Overcoming hard times through tough faith.

Customer Reviews:

Beyond The Barriers.......2002-08-30

This book is a excellent book showing what God can do. I have read and reread Harold Morris books and each of them have a wonderful story of how life as a christian is great as well as difficult sometimes. I and very grateful that I got to read these insiring books.

What all kids need to know.......2002-02-13

This is an excellent book about a man who made the wrong choices as a young adult. He faced the consequences of his decision and now he has been given a second chance. He has dedicated his life to young people. We are not all fortunate to have a second chance. We must make wise decisions now! A great and quick read!

A must for those seeking spiritual challenge.......2000-07-30

An outstanding read. The book is really a series of stories of "unlikely" lives that were made available for God's work. Be prepared to want to put your life on the line for God if you read this book. It's a fast read about real people who were used to change the world. You'll want to pass this one along to friends and family.

Beyond the Barriers.......2000-01-08

Absolutely excellent! I have read this book many times & have bought and given away more than ten copies over the years. It is a book of such encouragement...even when times are tough, the faith of Harold Morris exemplifies the faith we must all have in this day & age. Thanks, Harold.

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